WBC Presidents' Cocktail Reception with IBWN

The Women's Bond Club recently hosted over 165 attendees at the annual Presidents' Cocktail Reception. This year's event was co-sponsored by J.P. Morgan's Investment Bank Women's Network (IBWN), Thomson Reuters and Accenture.

Liz Byrnes, co-President of the Women's Bond Club, kicked off the event by welcoming everyone. She then turned it over to Kelly Coffey and Alice Wang, co-heads of the IBWN. Coffey, North America head of Corporate and Tax-Exempt Rates/FX Marketing, spoke about challenges women face in this industry and how the IBWN is working to address these issues and help more women advance in their careers. "Comprised of senior IB front office women, the IBWN started with a simple mission to attract, retain, develop, and promote more women in key roles within the business. We've gone after this mission the same way we run our businesses - with precision and relentlessness. We have made a lot of progress in a very short time and, while we recognize that we have a long way to go, for the first time, we feel like we have the right roadmap toward success."

Nancy Gardner, Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Thomson Reuters, then kicked off the networking portion of the evening. New this year, the event was set up to allow for 'zoned networking' by designating different areas of the room to certain business areas and assigning attendees to a specific zone. There were three 7-minute networking rotations and for each rotation the attendees had the opportunity to shift conversations within their assigned zone. This format proved to be successful in that attendees could interact with people in similar roles to themselves. There was time at the end for 'open networking' as well. Paula O'Reilly, a Banking Partner at Accenture, wrapped up the evening and thanked everyone for their participation.